


Truth Comes In The End

by Eternal Scribe (Shadowcat)



Category: The Aeneid - Virgil
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 05:44:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/606432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/pseuds/Eternal%20Scribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Dido climbed up on the pyre with all of the belongings, Anna knew something was horribly wrong. She didn’t know why she started walking forward, but all of a sudden, she was running and climbing up the pyre as she screamed out her sister’s name.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Truth Comes In The End

**Author's Note:**

  * For [malo_malo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/malo_malo/gifts).



> Written for malo-malo for the 2012 Yuletide Fic Exchange. I loved The Aeneid and was so happy to tackle a story about Dido.

The fire was burning at the hottest temperature that the tenders could have gotten it to be. Even from where she was standing, she could feel the heat emanating from the pyre. She wasn’t sure if she had ever experienced such a hot pyre because when Sychaeus was burned, she was too busy trying to make sure that she and her sister didn’t share his fate. 

She did not like this or the way that she was feeling about it. Dido was hurting and Anna wished with all of her heart that she could do something to help.

Something that wasn’t helping Dido to burn everything that she had shared with the deserter, Aeneas.

When Dido climbed up on the pyre with all of the belongings, Anna knew something was horribly wrong. She didn’t know why she started walking forward, but all of a sudden, she was running and climbing up the pyre as she screamed out her sister’s name.

“DIDO!”

Dido turned her head and her eyes widened as her sister threw herself at her. “Anna…”

“No,” Anna, said, reaching for the sword. “Dido, no.” Anna grabbed her sister, holding onto her. “Don’t do this. I know he hurt you seriously and I know you miss Sychaeus, but this is not the answer.”

Dido’s eyes filled with tears as her shoulders dropped. “I’m tired, so tired sister. I have lost so much and been wounded over and over again. What more must I endure?”

“You founded a wonderful place to live free, Dido,” Anna said soothingly. “You gave people a home that they may not have been able to have otherwise. You keep them safe and free. You are their Queen, and they need your guidance. What would become of them if you do this thing?”

“What kind of Queen am I if my King chooses to leave me for a chance at a different kind of glory?”

“Dido, he was not worthy of the Queen you are. Your people love you and need you with them just the way you are. They don’t want a legend for a Queen, they want the Queen who has always cared for them. They want you.”

Dido looked away for a long time and then sighed, turning back to her sister. “I don’t know how to do this, Anna. I have so much pain inside of me and I miss my husband. I miss Sychaeus and I betrayed his memory with Aeneas.”

“Sychaeus will forgive you, sister. You were lonely and thought Aeneas loved you.” Anna held her sister close. “Just don’t give in to despair. Put away the sword and come down from there.” She stepped back and then she held out her hand to her sister. “You have a kingdom to run, Queen Dido.”

Dido didn’t move for several long moments, and then, to Anna’s immense relief, she placed her hand in that of her sister. Anna squeezed her hand gently, and then tugged slightly so that Dido would walk beside her. In this position, it looked like Dido was leading Anna, which was exactly what her sister wanted her to do.

 

Dido reaffirmed her desire to take care of the people of Carthage and make sure that they remained the source of power in the Mediterranean. For the years of her rule, they saw great prosperity and peace under her hands. She brought many new traders from all over the Mediterranean which added to their coffers and afforded them the ability to live a life that they had well become accustomed to. Their military was one that most of their rivals could not defeat and that added even more renown to Carthage while Dido ruled their kingdom.

But the day came, as they all do, when Dido was no longer able to be Queen and no longer able to be the one that leads them in all that they do.

Laying on her bed in her chambers, Dido kept looking towards the sea that she saw outside of her high window. Fitting that she should see the sea looking angry from a storm on the last day she knew she would be alive in this place.

Dido, Queen of Carthage and the leader of the refuges from Tyre had finally come to the end of the threads of her life. She was old and now she was dying. It was probably a good time to die as most of the ones that she had shared her life with and trusted implicitly had long passed into the Underworld.

Her eyes drifted shut and she could feel the rest of her body shutting down. She was so very tired and was ready to rest. She had been the Queen of Carthage for a long time and it had prospered beneath her guidance. Now, it was time for her to go and meet her beloved in the Underworld and let a new queen take Carthage in hand.

 

When Dido opened her eyes again, she was on the banks of the River Styx and Chiron was waiting there to take her across the water so that she could go before Hades and Persephone to give an account for her life so that they would allow her to enter the Elysian Fields and be reunited with Sychaeus. She stepped into the boat with Chiron and placed her hands in her lap. She listened to the water slapping against the ship as Chiron guided the boat across the water and to the other side. When the boat reached the other side, Dido carefully stepped out and then handed Chiron the gold coin that she had brought across with her for her passage.

She gathered her scarf around her head, and started down the only path that she could see. Before she stepped through a door, she heard a familiar voice and turned to the direction of the voice.

“Aeneas.” Her voice is calm and serene with no trace of the devastation she had felt over his departure so many years ago.

“Dido,” Aeneas said, moving closer to her. “You have changed.”

“Sorrow and death do have a way of doing that to even the strongest of us, Aeneas.” Dido tilted her head at him. “Have you changed, then, Aeneas?”

“I have carried sorrow that I never wanted or expected to feel in my life.” He took a deep breath. “Dido, when my fleet sailed away, I saw something. Something that made my heart stop and my breath fight to escape my body.”

“And what do you believe that you saw that day, Aeneas, since you claimed to have seen nothing in us before you abandoned me to whatever might happen.”

Aeneas flinched slightly. “I did not feel that I had any choice but to follow the wills of the gods.”

“And our marriage was not something that the gods willed and orchestrated?” Dido demanded. “I did everything that they asked of me and I gave you all that was demanded. Yet, you still deserted me and explained not a word.”

“I would explain now, Dido. I would excuse myself for hurting you as I did without the intention of doing so.”

“What did you think that you saw on that day, Aeneas?”

He met her eyes, refusing to look away. “A fire that had flames which almost touched the skies. Flames that could only be used to send a fallen warrior into the next life.”

“What you saw on the day you left Carthage was indeed a funeral pyre, Aeneas.”

“Who fell?”

“The pyre was mine and I almost fell in disgrace for my despair over a lover that was fickle.”

“Dido… I didn’t want you to die! I did love you.”

“You had a most interesting way of showing it,” Dido said with some asperity. “When you left, all I wanted to do was to die over the broken heart you left within me.” She shook her head. “I did not die that day, Aeneas, so do not fear. I burned all of the things you left behind, and just when I was going to add myself to the pyre, my dear sister stopped me by reminding me of my responsibilities to my people.” She smiled slightly. “I lived a long life, Aeneas, and now I am here to be reunited with my true and beloved husband, Sychaeus.”

“I would like to speak with you at length and tell you the truth of why I left you, Dido. It wasn’t something that I wished to do.”

Dido shook her head. “No, Aeneas, there is no time for this. My husband is awaiting me in the grove over there and I have missed him for so long.”

Aeneas watched Dido walk into the grove and watched as she was embraced by the shade of a man that was standing there. He continued to watch the couple until they moved further into the grove and faded away into the darkness.


End file.
